Cartridge Bearing Failure

kopride said:

I wonder whether you can upgrade cartridge bearings for a hub the same way you can on a skate board or roller blades

you most certainly can upgrade the vast majority of bearing applications. if you are in the states or canada, look up your friendly local Applied Industrial Technologies distributor: smp.applied.comsmp.applied.comOpen ↗

hit the "locate service centers" button at the top right of the page.

take your bearng to the service desk, describe your application and ask about your options for a repacement of better quality...perhaps an instrument grade or ABEC grade 9?

CAMPYBOB said:

you most certainly can upgrade the vast majority of bearing applications. if you are in the states or canada, look up your friendly local Applied Industrial Technologies distributor: smp.applied.comsmp.applied.comOpen ↗

hit the "locate service centers" button at the top right of the page.

take your bearng to the service desk, describe your application and ask about your options for a repacement of better quality...perhaps an instrument grade or ABEC grade 9?

Thanks. Very cool, albiet totally geeky. Very neat way to upgrade a hubset

kopride said:

My Cane Creek rear hub failed due to a blown cartridge bearing. Never happened on my old Ultegra Hub which uses "old school" bearings. We will see if it is an isolated problem due to a defective bearing or it is a harbinger of more bad things to come. I inspected the frozen bearing and it is embossed with a Cane Creek logo. Apparently Zipp makes great cartridge bearings of super high quality. I wonder whether you can upgrade cartridge bearings for a hub the same way you can on a skate board or roller blades

Consider that the bearing itself may have been fine. The failure could be caused by misalignment, excessive preload, corrosion or contamination, not a defective bearing. As you say, you'll find out in short order if your first bearing was bad, or if something else is going on.

I've also had problems with the Velomax/Easton Circuit front hub bearings...size R6 (3/8" ID). Have replaced them twice in 12K miles with spares provided by the LBS, but they still feel rough when turning the axle with fingers. The problem I have with the front wheel is excessive preload, which makes the bearings feel rough after the first ride with the skewer tightened. Using bearings that are only designed for pure radial loads (no end loads) without having a means to adjust the preload seems like a poor design to me.

Perhaps there is a better bearing available for my application as well.

Regardless of the ABEC quality rating of the cartridge bearing you buy, or the fit classification, don't think it's going to last long with excessive preload or with a slight axle misalignment. With my limited knowledge of design, it appears to me the standard cup and cone hub solved all three of these issues about 100 years ago: adjustable preload, tolerates axial loads, and isn't extremely critical of axle wobble.

When I sold my 1992 Raleigh this season, the Ultegra hubs were still going strong. They were re-lubed during the last wheelset rebuild in 2003, but had no other maintenance that I'm aware of. I prefer this design for durability.

kopride said:

Thanks. Very cool, albiet totally geeky. Very neat way to upgrade a hubset

Don't worry, there are few normal people on this board... 😉